In the remote village of Heishui, the Yin family is like an isolated island, shrouded in a string of eerie events and surrounded by endless gloom. Yin Guangde, the head of the family, is nearly fifty. He has nine sons, but none can escape the cruel twists of fate and grow up healthy. Each new birth is accompanied by inexplicable illness and misfortune, as if an invisible hand were reaching out in the darkness, mercilessly devouring these innocent little lives.
At last, on a moonless, windy night, the tenth child, Yin Shi, came into the world, bringing with him an air of mystery and ill omen. His birth brought not the slightest joy or celebration. Instead, it struck the villagers like a meteor, shattering what little composure they had left and deepening their fear and unease. For the very moment Yin Shi was born, the first nine children, as if summoned by some mysterious force, died one after another on the same night. Their life fires quietly went out in the darkness, as though swallowed by a curse.
